I’m Donna Bordeaux with Campground Accounting and I wanted to discuss with you today –  Site Lock Fees. This is a fairly new term in our industry, but it is on the horizon as something you want to consider for your park.  Site Lock fees are an additional amount that a guest pays to book a particular site in your park and provides your guests the freedom to choose which site they would like. If they don’t choose, then you are able to move them around in a particular category of sites. Now, many park owners do not like that idea of allowing guests to pick a particular site, especially if they’ve been using categories for their reservation system currently.

I’ve often heard the concern that I want to let guests have the right number of days, but I need the flexibility to move them around to fill in gaps in my reservations. That’s all fine and good, but keep in mind, you’re probably missing out on a significant piece of revenue. The campgrounds that we have noticed implementing Site Lock fees are getting $5 to $15 per site and on the average about $10 per site per day to allow somebody to pick a particular site in your park. With those amounts of revenue, we are seeing upwards of 20 to 35% increases in revenue by allowing Site Lock fees in your system.

If you’re using an online booking system right now, most have this capability already built into them. It’s just something you have to turn on. It may also have some internal changes that you’ll want to make as you implement Site Lock fees, but I highly encourage you to enable this going forward and to take a look at the increase in revenue that it can bring to your park.

When you are doing your reservation systems, I’m sure you’ve all had that person or that family who says, I come every summer on the 4th of July and I always want to stay in Site 5. That’s my favorite site. Or maybe they want to pick a site this close to your pool, or a dog park, or close to a place where they know somebody who’s already camping. Maybe they’ve got a group camping together. So, you really may want to consider allowing them to pick those and take advantage of the opportunity to add to your revenue. This is a great tip for you! I highly encourage you to review the opportunities that Site Lock fees present for revenue growth.

If you have questions about how that can be implemented and what effects it can have on your revenue, I encourage you to let me know. Let’s schedule some time to chat!   You owe it to yourself to see how Site Lock Fees can help you.

Donna Bordeaux
CPA with CampgroundAccounting.com

What happens when you send two CPAs out into the relaxing outdoors to camp? You get CampgroundAccounting.com.  Donna and Chad have over 50 years of combined experience as entrepreneurial CPAs.  They’ve owned businesses and helped business owners exceed their wildest dreams.  They camp and travel across the country every chance they get, so it’s just a natural fit that they focus their CPA skills on helping campground owners throughout the USA grow their businesses and minimize the impact of taxes.  They understand the key performance indicators and specialized issued that face RV park owners every day.

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